This creature resembles a kobold, with long arms, a short tail and pebbly gray-brown scales for skin. Its features are indistinct, and are prone to shifting.

Elans are many things, but first and foremost they are secretive. While anyone with the desire and resources can find out that elan are made, the exact process remains unknown. It’s speculated that whatever forces are capable of transmuting a human into an aberration are also capable of creating the voleurs – widespread but little-known leeches of thought and memory – for they are certainly powerful enough for the task. Strangely, not much more speculation on this subject, or the subject of these cerebral stalkers, seems to get done, and most former scholars of the subject insist that they used to know…

Voleurs operate independently for the most part, content to live in solitude and in secrecy in populated urban centers. Occasionally they may be found in the employ of certain organizations, as spies and secret weapons.

Some organizations even retain a few dominated voleurs in thrall against their will, seeing them as a very useful tool. Incredibly stealthy even before their natural shapeshifting talents are considered, they can steal the very memory of their presence from a victim’s mind, letting them strike completely undetected and unremembered. This helps them live in secrecy quite easily, as they draw sustenance from feeding on the thoughts of others (typically stealing the memory of being bitten from their prey). What few rumors persist about them speak of them operating as sleeper agents, with standing orders to eliminate certain ‘dangerous’ thoughts from the surrounding populace.

A voleur (sometimes called a cerebral stalker) stands slightly less than 3 feet tall, typically weighing around 30 pounds. In their natural form, they resemble kobolds on all fours, although with a shorter tail and retractable catlike claws. Capable of walking upright, they will sometimes wear cloaks and impersonate other small races whom most tend to ignore, such as goblins, although they are able to masquerade as smaller members of larger races, such as dwarves or short humans. The best way to hide is in plain sight.

Voleurs speak Common. Many individuals may speak other languages. Additionally, a voleur understands any stolen memory as readily as if it were the memory’s original owner, regardless of what languages the memory contained.

Adaptation: Able to steal a creature’s very memories even while moving unnoticed through society, cerebral stalkers as presented make excellent spies and secret agents. They could work independently, or they could be an entire race of mercenary thoughtstealers.

Combat:

A voleur prefers to creep up on its targets unnoticed. Although they are proficient in light armor (a trait not reflected in the statistics above), they typically appear completely innocuous, which includes wearing common clothes and leaving unusual gear, including most psionic items, behind. A favorite tactic is to get close to a target while under the effects of everyman, touch them to steal their memories, and then bite in the window this creates, blending into the crowd afterward.

Drain Thoughts (Su): A voleur that successfully bites an enemy deals 1d4 points of Intelligence damage unless the target makes a successful Will save (DC 22). The voleur heals 5 hit points per point of Intelligence drained. If the voleur is already at full hit points, it gains psionic sustenance that supplies its need for nourishment for 24 hours. The save DC is Charisma-based.

Steal Memory (Su): As a standard action, a voleur can steal the short-term memories of his target. Upon a successful touch attack, if the subject fails a Will save (DC 20), he is treated as if under the effects of mnemonic fugue for the following round. Anything the subject would have remembered about that round instead appears in the mind of the voleur, who can read it like a normal memory (from the perspective of the victim).

A voleur can also steal long-term memories, although this is significantly more difficult for it. Stealing a long-term memory is similar to the psionic modify memory power (DC 19), except that it may only erase memories, it must be used on helpless creatures, and the voleur must remain in contact with the victim for the duration of the memory it wants to steal (up to five minutes; it typically uses mind probe to determine which memories, if any, are worthwhile). Memories erased from the victim appear in the mind of the voleur as they are erased, who can read them like normal memories from the perspective of the victim.

A voleur can steal a total of five minutes of memories (long-term or short-term) on any single day; stealing more would threaten the creature’s metal health, and they are too intelligent to put themselves at such a risk. Several of the cerebral stalkers operating in tandem could conceivably steal longer spans of memory from a single target, but no such occurrence has ever been reported.

Skills: Voleurs have a +4 racial bonus on Hide and Move Silently checks, used primarily to catch victims by surprise. Their claws also give them a +2 racial bonus on Climb checks. A voleur’s everyman ability grants it a +10 bonus on Disguise checks to appear as a given creature (typically an average creature), and a +5 bonus on Bluff checks to act in character.